I feel like I keep apologizing for participating in common American behaviors (owning a cat, getting caught up in media hype, etc.), so I'm going to present my comments about reality television without saying that I'm stupid for watching it at all. Because I do...sometimes:) I have to admit that I watched a few episodes of The Bachelor recently. Then, last night, while folding my laundry, I saw the finale. And it was really, honestly, a beautiful capture of reality and extreme human emotions. I'm saying that with only a little bit of sarcasm (mostly directed towards myself for saying it!) But the last three people, the Bachelor and the two remaining contestants, made realistic, feeling, and un-publicity-motivated decisions. Which is a huge improvement over the Bachelorette (OMG, yes, I watched that too!) The behavior of all of those people rang so false to me that I had to turn off my TV. I think, eventually, television executives will realize that people are much more interested in (and society will benefit so much more from) televised moments that actually capture positive human emotions. Like on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which I watch every Sunday; the producers turn every scene into maudlin treacle (I love that word!), but it's all coming from a good place. It's not like gaining pleasure from watching very muscular people eat worms or backstabbing "friends" compete on children's playgrounds for prizes on a fake desert island. That's possibly as far from reality as you can get; and, it shows the worst of human behavior (i.e. how far would you go- over the bounds of decent, intelligent behavior- for money?) Last night, on the Bachelor, the episode was primarily about how much the contestants saw the articifial and cruel nature of what they were contractually obligated to do in front of a live audience. The Bachelor was shaking, he was so torn about dumping someone live. Well, the obvious thing to do would be to break the contract (or, for that matter, not choose to enter into the contrived reality show environment in the first place), but his gentlemanly behavior really put all other stupid reality behavior to shame. The contestants seemed so normal, too, making the situation much more relatable to me. When the last Bachelorette dumped one man after the other, both horribly and without apparent feeling (maybe because the situation grants that kind of callousness), I was mad. I think that reality television can actually capture human frailty- I still don't know why the producers need to construct so much false tension (there are only two roses left!) when real life has enough inherent difficulty and obstacles. So, that's my opinion of reality television. I hope my dad doesn't read this, because I'll never hear the end of it for critiquing reality tv- how can you analyse something that is so biased and artificial. If it can show us common humanity (which is rarely does), isn't that good programming? I would definitely tune in:)